Where Katharine Hepburn Got Her Chocolates

The sign does say “Mondel Chocolates.” But the display window, a collection of boxes, posters and a neon sign that repeats the store name, shows no sweets. Habitual customers, however, ignore the arrangement and walk into Mondel’s with the same intention they have had for years.

Thomas DiPrete was one such determined customer, entering and exiting shortly after with a paper bag of mixed dark chocolates with almond logs, citrus truffles, cordial cherries and Black Forest truffles.

“I favor the ones that have a real fruity flavor,” Mr. DiPrete said.

Mr. DiPrete, 65, of Morningside Heights, said he had occasionally been coming to Mondel Chocolates for a decade, but a few years ago he moved next door to the store on Broadway and West 114th Street.

“Now I have to try to not come too often,” Mr. DiPrete said. “Only every few weeks.”

Once you’re through the door, the narrow store reveals display cases filled with dozens of types of candies, like raspberry jellies and champagne truffles and almond bark. The handwritten price signs are yellowed with age. The little space that is not stocked with chocolates is occupied by fancy gift boxes and tins.

Carl Mondel and his wife, Elsie, opened the store in 1943. Their daughter Florence worked there, starting as a young girl and retiring only a few years ago. According to Paula Blat, the manager and an employee for the past 22 years, the store hasn’t changed much since it opened.

“The store is the same,” Ms. Blat said. “The same people come in. They say it’s exactly the same.”

Such longevity creates longtime customers, some who discover Mondel Chocolates when they are students at nearby Barnard and Columbia and keep coming even once they graduate and move away. For instance, there’s the story (reported in Metropolitan Diary in 2003) of a man who was devoted to orange creams when he was a Columbia student in the 1960s. Thirty years later, he returned to Mondel with his daughter. The proprietor recognized him and mentioned that she hadn’t seen him “for a while.”

The proprietor was Florence, if Ms. Blat recalls correctly, but an experience like that isn’t unusual, she said.

“There are people that come with their children and then grandchildren,” Ms. Blat said.

Perhaps Mondel Chocolates’ most recognizable fan was Katharine Hepburn, who called the store’s chocolates “the best in the world.” A note on the stationery of “Katharine Houghton Hepburn,” sent by the actress’s niece and now taped to the glass near the register, reads, “Thank you for the delicious chocolates — how very thoughtful — Ms. Hepburn was pleased.” The store had sent chocolates for Ms. Hepburn’s 90th birthday in 1997.

For years, Hepburn would be driven to Mondel Chocolates to pick up her standing order: pecan turtles, molasses chips, butter crunch, dark orange peel, champagne truffles and dark almond bark. Customers still come in and request the Hepburn mix.

The holidays are the busiest time. Boxes of chocolates are an obvious gift, but Mondel Chocolates also sells nuts and dried fruits for Hanukkah that can be paired with kosher chocolates. At Easter, Mondel finds room on the shelves for stuffed plush bunnies and the rest of the makings for an Easter basket.

The economist Glenn Hubbard, the dean of Columbia Business School since 2004 and a resident of the Upper West Side since 1988, doesn’t remember how he first learned about Mondel Chocolates. But he stocks his office with Mondel gift boxes to give to visitors and leaves out a bowl of butter crunch.

“I think gifts should be, if possible, local and special,” Mr. Hubbard said.

Correction:

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified the college attended by a Mondel’s customer who was devoted to orange creams. He attended Columbia, not Barnard.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page MB3 of the New York edition with the headline: Ph.D. Orals: Butter Crunch or Citrus Truffle?. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe